Final Day

We had one last day on Catalina before it was time to head back home. After breakfast at the Pancake Cottage, we did a little shopping. David purchased his traditional goofy gift for DeRon and I picked up a sign and a Christmas ornament as well as some salt water taffy. By then, it was time to check out of our hotel room, so we did so and then headed to the Catalina Island Museum.

The museum is much nicer than the first time I visited. It has a new location received an extensive makeover of exhibits and presentations. We learned even more about the history of the island from the natives who once lived there to the Chicago Cubs' spring training to the glory days of the Casino to the suspicious death of Natalie Wood. The museum currently has a special traveling exhibit of the gorgeous blown glass of artist Chihuly. There was a room filled with smaller pieces and a courtyard with an amazing installation that looked like a fantasy underwater garden. In addition, there were two beautiful chandeliers that took your breath away.

When we finished at the museum we had just a few hours before our boat to the mainland left, so we wandered around town and hiked to the Nature Center which was about a mile up the road. We walked along the golf course which I thought was where the baseball field used by the Cubs had once been. I kept looking for any remnants and thought there must be some marker or record of the field that had been built to the same dimensions of Wrigley field, but I never found anything. Later after I got home I read that there was indeed a plaque and the original clubhouse was now the country club. I'm sorry that we missed it. We did however, see the remains of the Bird Park that Mr. Wrigley established and maintained for many years. Now the frame of the original Casino once turned into an aviary is now a cage surrounding a playground for a preschool.

We caught the Catalina Express and arrived back in Long Beach around 5:30 just in time for rush hour traffic. The drive wasn't too bad and we stopped for dinner(but mostly cheesecake) at a Cheesecake Factory. As I dropped into my bed, I was grateful for the treasured time with my sons and for William Wrigley Jr. and his son P. K. Wrigley who had the vision and made the investment to create such a lovely spot for people to go for a vacation.

To read David's perspective go here

To see more photos of our trip go here.

Back Country, Fish, and Culture

Today was our first full day on Catalina Island and it was a busy one. We ate breakfast at Jack's Country Kitchen and then walked over to the Catalina Island Conservancy to catch our 9:30 jeep ride into the interior of the island.

Bison

We waited around after we checked in, and when the 9:45 tour was loading up, we realized that something was wrong. Apparently, because I reserved our ride online the night before, the driver wasn't aware that he had passengers. This made no real sense to me since there were three people in the building and we checked in with one of them while the other was sitting at the desk too. Our driver, Ron was in the back office and neither one seemed to think it might be a good idea to tell him we were there. Good grief. Ron was apologetic and once we strapped ourselves into the 5-point harness, we were headed out of Avalon and toward the backcountry.

Catalina Fox

With the crazy seat belt, we expected to do some off-roading or have an experience like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, but the ride was just a little bumpy and the harness seemed like an overly cautious precaution. Regardless, we learned about the history of the island, and got to see some wildlife, but not as much as expected. We saw one of the 150 bison on the island, which are descendants of 45 bison originally brought to the island for a movie and then left behind. We saw a Catalina Fox, the animal at the top of the food chain and only found on this Island. We also saw a bald eagle's nest in the top of a tree and a bald eagle and a golden eagle in captivity. It was a two-hour ride through scrub brush along dirt roads and I thought Joe summed it up best when he said, we could have been driving around the hill country outside of Julian except for the occasional view of the ocean. All in all, it was interesting, but a bit pricey for what we experienced.

Lover's Cove

After the jeep ride, we walked around town looking in shops. Then it was on to the Seaview and a glass bottom boat ride. We were the only ones on the boat so we basically got a private ride to Lover's Cove where we fed the fish and watched them swarm and jump out of the water. Most of the fish we saw were bass, but we did get to see some Garibaldi which is the California state fish. Captain Hunter told us that if you catch/kill a Garibaldi it is a $1000 fine.

Our final tourist attraction of the day was a Behind the Scenes tour of The Casino which is a striking circular building built by Mr. Wrigley. It is the height of 11-stories with a theater on the main floor and a ballroom above. In its heyday, it was the destination of the Hollywood crowd and many others looking for a night out of dinner and dancing. The building is beautiful with impressive architecture and art throughout. There is a promenade that runs completely around the outside of the ballroom providing wonderful views of the ocean and harbor. Part of our tour took us backstage to see all of the old equipment which was pretty cool, but one of the best parts was getting to go into the projection room and seeing the different projectors still in place that were used over the years. Another interesting room was the private viewing room of the Wrigley family which also hosted famous filmmakers, Cecil B. DeMille, Louis B. Mayer, and Samuel Goldwyn as they previewed their movies.

We ended the day with dinner at Antonio's Pizzeria where we shared two small pizzas, spaghetti and meatballs, and Caesar salad. Tomorrow will be our last day and although we are still deciding on what exactly we will do, one thing of which I am certain is we'll visit the Catalina Island Museum. I just can't go on a vacation without visiting at least one museum.

For another perspective, read my son David's blog: http://favoritesonsspiels.blogspot.pe/

Big City Hunt and Little Island Voyage

We woke up this morning for an early breakfast on the ship at the Promenade Cafe. They had a reasonably priced breakfast buffet providing plenty of variety to satisfy and fill us up. After breakfast, we showed Joe around and shared some of the stories we heard on our tour. We also went into a small lecture hall and watched several videos that shared the oral histories of different people on the Queen Mary. We heard the personal stories of a crew member, a war bride, and a refugee. I always love hearing the stories of real people.

We said farewell to the Queen Mary and moved on to our next stop, the Big City Hunt. Over a year ago, I had purchased an online scavenger hunt for Long Beach. We were given various clues and questions to answer and we did a lot of walking...a lot of walking. We started at the Long Beach Museum of Art and ended up on the harbor by the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Long Beach Harbor Lighthouse. Some of the landmarks were interesting, but when we finished, we had a 2-mile walk back to where we had parked the car. This didn't seem that well planned.

During the hunt, we noticed a large number of motorcyclists around the city. Eventually, we found out why. There was an International Motorcycle Show happening at the Convention Center. The parking lot was filled with hundreds of motorcycles! Once back at our car, we realized we had walked about 5-6 miles. It was a quick drive and we were soon boarding the Catalina Express.

We checked into our hotel, Hotel Mac Crae which is a fourth generation owned hotel. It is old and small, but we are right on the boardwalk in the heart of all of the shops and restaurants and it should make a nice home base for the next two days. We had dinner at Coyote Joe's and Joe and I participated in some lively conversation and debate while we ate. After dinner, we walked through a few shops and then made plans for tomorrow. We have a busy day planned with a jeep tour, a glass bottom boat trip, and a behind the scenes tour of the Casino. As Mater from the movie Cars would say, "It's going to fuh-uhn!"

To read another perspective, you can read David's blog here: http://favoritesonsspiels.blogspot.pe/2017/11/from-queen-mary-to-catalina.html

Summer...I mean Fall Road Trip

It took some patience and a bit of planning, but we have successfully started our 2017 road trip and all three sons are participating which makes me one happy mama. Normally, we take a summer road trip, but with Zach's trip to Germany, my week of Summit training, and assorted events, we just couldn't make it happen during our traditional months. I was getting a little worried that we might have to forego this year's trip; however, we were able to synchronize schedules and squeeze in a little weekend trip to Long Beach and Catalina Island.

I'm the king of the world! Oh wait, wrong ship.

After a late start this morning due to David sleeping in and me trying to finish up a few work items, we picked up Zach and headed up the I-5 toward Long Beach. Joe had to work, so he would be joining us later in the evening. We made a quick stop at Downtown Disney for lunch at The Earl of Sandwich one of the few restaurants we haven't eaten at yet. I had an ulterior motive which was to go into Disneyland and meet up with one of our teachers, a former student, and her mother. Since both David and I have passes, we thought we'd go into the park for a bit while Zach explored Downtown Disney and perhaps played a little Pokemon Go. Alas, in our rush to leave the house, I forgot my annual pass, so those plans went by the wayside. David went into the park briefly, and Miss Koch came out to say "hi" while Mikaela and her mom went on a ride.

We left Disneyland and made it to Long Beach and the Queen Mary, the first real stop of our little road trip. We checked into our rooms which have some of the original fixtures like vents that open and close to make it warmer or cooler and a metal fan mounted on the wall. Also, in the bathroom, there are four spigots labeled hot fresh, hot salt, cold fresh and cold salt. We have two deluxe twin rooms. One room is long and narrow and the other is pretty open. Apparently, there are many shapes and sizes of rooms. In fact, we were told the Winston Churchill Suite is the size of an apartment.

We purchased tickets and walked through the Princess Diana exhibit learning about the history of the royal family. We got to see some of Diana's dresses, notes and letters written by members of the royal family, newspaper articles, and many different artifacts. After the exhibit, we explored the ship a bit and had a little dinner at one of the onboard restaurants. We were passing time until our Guided Historical Tour which wasn't until 8:15.

The Queen's Room aka First Class Lounge

The tour was interesting and we got to see some beautiful rooms, amazing woodwork, and Art Deco. You can tell especially in some places on the ship where it must have been very luxurious for that time period. There are 56 different types of wood on the ship from the 56 different English colonies of the time. It's really quite lovely. Because the Queen Mary is on the National Registry of Historical Landmarks, they have to follow strict rules about remodeling and restoration. As a result, you get to experience what it was like on a luxury liner in the 1930s. Well, that is, without the 16-20 degree pitch on the rolling waves of the Atlantic and of course with many modern day amenities.

Joe arrived around 9:30 p.m. and soon we retired to our staterooms. The walls are very thin and the people in the room next to us were having an argument as I typed this blog post, but it sounds like they have quieted down, so I'll sign off and head to bed.

For a different perspective, read David's blog: http://favoritesonsspiels.blogspot.com/